A couple days ago 60 Minutes aired a piece on Alex Honnold, a climber who scales insane cliffs with only a pair of climbing shoes and some chalk. To capture footage of Honnold doing a death-defying climb, they attached GoPro cameras to various points on the cliff and had photographers hanging nearby with Canon 5D Mark II DSLRs. The result is an amazing glimpse into an activity that only a handful of people on earth would even think about attempting.

Here’s the behind the scenes video showing how they captured the footage:

As a climber, I’ve got to say that what this young man does is magical to me. He has basically attained the ideal of our sport, standing at the bottom of a vertical cliff, thousands of feet high, and then scaling it with nothing but his strength, skill, and mental fortitude.

I also worry that one day I’ll read about the mistake he made that cost him his life. I hope not.

Gene on
October 6th, 2011 at 15:48:

As I watched him on the hardest part I thought about what it would be like to be there and that’s when a chill ran down my spine. This guy is insane but obviously the best at what he does!

As was not widely reported, The Rodale Institute has just published the results of a 30-year study that claims that -in terms of yields, economic viability, energy usage, and human health- organic farming is better than conventional farming, and they have the data to prove it.

“You know the real reason why I lost my accent though and why you’re gonna have to loose yours if you have one too? It’s ‘cause they automated 411. Yeah, yeah… You’re talking to a robot. You can’t have an accent and get a number anymore, this is the future!” – Hal Sparks

The Tahirih Justice Center has just released a report that shows some very disturbing instances of as many 3000 young women across the United States being forced into marriage, often to men much older than them that they have never met and whom sometimes turn to brutally raping their young wives, with one man said to have avoided public scrutiny by pretending to be the father of his recent 13 year old bride who only recently arrived in the country. Whilst raping her repeatedly in the evenings she would then attend school during the day where her husband purported father would religiously collect her at the end of the day. Hardly the sort of tale that broach women’s emancipations in modern day America.

In case you think forced marriages are only for foreigners you’d be surprised to learn that according to the report, forced marriages go on quite widely within the US, with as many 47 out of 50 states practicing the craft. What distinguishes forced marriages to that of arranged marriages is the fact that forced marriages do not involve consent from the bride and often involve underage girls.

During a highly anticipated media event held today at the Apple corporation’s world headquarters, CEO Tim Cook announced the new iPhone 4S is good and people should buy it. “It’s a good phone,” said Cook, walking out onto a stage and gesturing at a picture of the device projected on a large screen behind him. "It’s got e-mail, the Internet, and you can get apps on it. Everybody should get one. It’s good." After standing in place for another four seconds without speaking, Cook walked off stage, at which point the houselights came up and all in attendance were asked to please file out of the auditorium.

Yeah, amazing. Amazing how strong work ethics was in the 1920s, and suddenly people became extremely lazy in 1929! Lost their whole work ethic in less than a year! Worldwide! For a whole decade! In some countries, nearly half of the work-force decided to call it a day! It needed a world war to make them work hard again! Surely because of the nation-wide military discipline, there is no other explanation.

In the 1950s and 1960s, work ethic was strong again because people learned discipline in the war, only to drop again in the 1970s. All the coal miners and steel workers of the 1970s would surely have found work, but they were simply too lazy. The long-haired lazy Hippies are to blame, I’m sure!

Ever wonder why Germany has a robust renewables economy, while the U.S. keeps claiming it’s not achievable? Here’s a theory from Franz Unterskeller, German state minister for the environment, climate, and energy:

We don’t have the situation like you have in the U.S., where you have this Koch brothers.

For the past few weeks, hundreds of protesters have been demonstrating in New York under the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ banner. The demonstrators have a range of gripes over the state of America – not least the woeful state of the economy and what they argue is a destructive corporate greed that’s choking the prospects of the average worker.

But has the US media been paying attention? The China Daily says not. In an editorial, the paper’s deputy US editor, Chen Weihua, blasts what he says is a ‘shameful’ media blackout.

‘As a journalist, I have wondered why the so-called mainstream US media, which is either headquartered in New York or maintains a strong presence in the city, has chosen to ignore the prolonged demonstration since it started,’ Chen asks. ‘Why have those journalists, who made their names covering various protests around the world, suddenly become silent in reporting the mass rally? That clearly does not match their enthusiasm to cover demonstrations in recent months in places such as North Africa and the Middle East.’

Today, unfortunately, the very pillars on which Wikipedia has been built – neutrality, freedom, and verifiability of its contents – are likely to be heavily compromised by paragraph 29 of a law proposal, also known as “DDL intercettazioni” (Wiretapping Act).

This proposal, which the Italian Parliament is currently debating, provides, among other things, a requirement to all websites to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image.

Unfortunately, the law does not require an evaluation of the claim by an impartial third judge – the opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required, in order to impose such correction to any website.

Hence, anyone who feels offended by any content published on a blog, an online newspaper and, most likely, even on Wikipedia can directly request to publish a “corrected” version, aimed to contradict and disprove the allegedly harmful contents, regardless of the truthfulness of the information deemed as offensive, and its sources.